Prof. David Stirrup, Director, Centre for Indigenous Studies and Settler Colonial Studies, reflects on what it means to ethically practice Indigenous Studies at the heart of Empire.
In those locations where Indigenous Studies has its strongest roots, its vigour emanates from an ethical praxis deeply embedded in relation to land and community. It produces, consequently, forms of engaged scholarship that, at their best, perform advocacy and reflect that relational approach between knowledge, place, and peoples. What does it mean, then, to do Indigenous Studies work at the heart of Empire? It is a question that does more than merely raise the spectre of the colonialist era during which Indigenous nations in the Americas and Oceania in particular were decimated, displaced, and subjected to increasingly aggressive forms of violence, toward their assumed eventual assimilation. Indigenous Studies, for one, is becoming a set of increasingly broad conversations, widening from an Anglophone base to embrace the same-but-different forms of Indigenous-settler relations across Scandinavia, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. More than that, then, our location in the UK raises the question of how scholars working at such geographical, cultural, and political distance from the Indigenous lands and communities on whom their work impinges can possibly develop a similarly—viably—ethical praxis. What kinds of questions, methodologies, and structures, ought to govern work in Indigenous Studies—and its cognate discipline of Settler Colonial Studies—in Europe?
This Centre was conceived in the conviction that, above all else, that this work cannot be done in isolation. Our principal aim is simple: to establish a UK base for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies that can become both a hub for these fields in the UK and a spoke in the broader range of Indigenous Studies and Settler Colonial Studies networks around the world. In drawing together scholars at Kent and in our wider networks, from literary studies, history, Hispanic studies, anthropology, and other related disciplines together we aim to facilitate and generate new interdisciplinary research in Indigenous Studies broadly conceived, where those questions outlined above determine scholarly practices and approaches that seek both to support and channel the powerful nation-, community- and land-based work being done elsewhere. These approaches will be shaped through partnerships with Indigenous Studies scholars and academic units, Indigenous organizations, and communities. In a similar way, we aim to support the work of students conducting graduate work in Indigenous Studies, through partnership exchanges, dedicated training in ethical research methodologies, and through coordinated funding programmes. And finally—but perhaps most importantly of all—we will use the Centre to provide regular invitations to Indigenous scholars and speakers for public talks and periods of residency. These priorities are collectively rooted in a strong public engagement remit, with a commitment to shape and inform British public perceptions of colonial relationships that are rarely taught in our Schools, and thus are poorly understood beyond the stereotypes and misconceptions of popular culture. We welcome opportunities to collaborate and cooperate with scholars, students, public entities, NGOs, and Schools.